On the Other Hand
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1809b: Emily has hated being trapped between her friends, but all she wants is to make sure they're happy. - Sunshine Girls 2 series - 5TH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE, day 3b of 21


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!_

**_IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF_**_** GLEEKATHON!** \- Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!_

**This story is a 1st person POV swap of _Wait &amp; Breathe_, a Sunshine Girls 2 series story originally posted on April 6th 2014.**

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**"On the Other Hand"  
Emily (POV), Nora/Grace  
Sunshine Girls 2 series**

I've been friends with Nora long enough to know what her face is saying when her mouth bails out on the job. For instance, when she shows up on my doorstep with a look like the one she gives me now, I know that she thinks she might have to suck up to me to get me to do something. Normally, I'd have to get her talking to figure out what it even has to do with, but then this isn't just normally, and with everything that's been going on the last few weeks, there's only one thing, one overarching subject, that could be at the root of whatever problem she's come to me to help her with.

So, without saying a word, I let her in, and we went to my room. Whatever she had to say, I knew she'd get around to it, so I waited, and as expected, she went and plopped back on my bed with a sigh.

"How did I even get here?" I honestly wished I could say the words going through my head right about now, but then her tone was telling me it would most likely be judged out of bounds, in this present situation.

"I'm assuming you don't want me teasing you by saying 'you drove here,' so be more specific." Whatever she had to say, it really was messing with her.

"She's going to break up with me," she sighed. Yep, there it was.

"Francesca?" I asked, and immediately I knew it was the dumbest thing I could have said, which she promptly confirmed.

"Who else?" I startled. Was it really that bad? I looked at her; she hadn't meant to snap like that. So I waited, let her work it out for herself first. I had a feeling she'd tried to think about it, to know what she would say by the time she got here, but it hadn't worked out as well as she would have hoped. "The worst part is I don't feel nearly as much that this would be a bad thing as I should be thinking it. I shouldn't be relieved for someone to dump me, should I? I care about Francesca, I do… so much."

She hadn't come to me for sugar coating. She knew I would say whatever it was she couldn't make herself say, and what she couldn't figure out on her own if it ever came up. In this case, it was the former, and I knew that for how much she liked, maybe loved, Francesca Saito, the real issue was whether she cared about her…

"As much as Grace?" I asked. Nora couldn't look at me. Nailed it.

"I couldn't do it. I couldn't just break up with Fran, then pick up with Grace like nothing happened. Then it would be like Fran meant nothing, but she did. She was the first girl I dated, for real, not just one bad date and that was it. She was the first girl I could call my girlfriend, the first one I ever…"

She stopped right there, and as glad as she looked that she'd caught herself before saying what she'd been about to say next, I was glad, too. It wasn't that I had a problem, with it or with Nora, but somehow putting those two things together and picturing my best friend, in bed, with anyone, was not something I was ever going to be able to do without shuddering hard, and if that made me weird, well crown me Queen Weird and get it over with. For now, I cleared my throat and stepped over the subject and on to what was really important.

"You know, I hate to always be the one who points things out…" I started, but Nora looked at me, with a big smirk on her face.

"Are you kidding, you love doing that," she chuckled, and I looked at her for a second before admitting it.

"Well, that's true. The point is, you're talking about Francesca and you like it's in the past, and it's not even hard for you to do it." Nora had noticed it, too. "But you're right, you probably would need to wait before anything happened with you and Grace."

I didn't know what was going through her mind now, which was saying a lot, but then she looked at me again, and the same expression she'd had earlier was back.

"So all this time, while I was with Francesca, she… I mean, Grace… she would come to you?" There it was. I was ready to tell her almost anything, but this… I couldn't even make myself look at her straight on. If Grace was here, she'd never want… "That bad?" Nora asked. I sighed.

"What do you want me to say? If it was the other way around, would you want me telling Grace about what it was like for you?" She had no idea, not just what it had been like for Grace, but for me, too.

"But you did tell her. Didn't you?" Okay, I knew that was coming, too.

"And I feel horrible about it." That was the truth. "If I hadn't said anything…"

"If you hadn't said anything, I don't think it would have changed anything, would it? Maybe it would have taken longer for this to happen, but… maybe this was always where we were headed." Yes, I'd been Grace's willing ear for the last little while, but how long had I been there, doing the same thing for Nora? Seeing her there, hunched over, I knew somehow I had to find the middle ground, as both of their best friend.

"Nora, look… She found out you'd had feelings for her because of Francesca, because of something she told her, after you two had your first date. When she came to me, she already knew, in some way, I just sort of… filled in the blanks. I didn't want to, but she was desperate to know. I think she must have already started to figure out where her own feelings were at, but she was confused." I didn't have to paint her a clearer picture.

"She didn't want to break me and Francesca up," she filled in the blanks, and all I could do was shake my head… and the next thing I knew, Nora had her arms around me, and I couldn't move.

"Woah, hey…" I laughed. "What…" Nora just kept on hugging me.

"Shh, I'm appreciating you," she declared, and so I hugged her back.

"Right, sounds good," I told her, and, for good measure, "Whatever happens, you'll get through it." I really did think it.

"Okay," was Nora's response. It didn't sound all that convinced, but that was alright. She had me for that.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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